


Sunrise

by Baconfat



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Extra Verse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 17:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13768638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baconfat/pseuds/Baconfat
Summary: Extra Verse. Ignis watches the sun rise at the end of a long night.





	Sunrise

Noctis lifted his hand, the power of the ring flaring white, and the crystal shattered, unleashing a light so bright it would surely blind them all even as it burned away the darkness and the daemons.

Ignis thought perhaps the image would be etched forever into his eyelids: the dark silhouette of the True King against the blazing light of the crystal. If that were the case, if this were the last light to reach his eyes, then so be it. Nothing would ever surpass that final sight, except perhaps that first glimpse of Noct on the night he returned to them.

Eventually the light faded and so did the afterimage, and when Ignis opened his eyes again Noct was still standing. Still with them. He reached down, helping Prompto to his feet. "Everybody in one piece?"

Gladio grunted an affirmative, hauling Ignis up, and Ignis managed a faint, "Indeed."

"Is... it over?" Prompto asked. He sounded very young, again.

"Yeah," Noct said, quiet and sure. He flexed his fingers, examining the ring. If there was still power there, it was dormant, now. Even its constant whispering in Ignis's ear had fallen silent.

There was nothing left of the crystal, and no trace of the Chancellor. The broken throne room was just that, now, without the chains and corpses, without the obscenity sitting on the throne.

It was dark and dusty, the wind moaning through the holes in the walls, but it was theirs again. 

"Um," Prompto whispered. "But. It's still dark."

Ignis checked his watch. "Of course it is," he said, sounding far more confident than he felt. "We've another twenty-three minutes until sunrise."

"Okay," Prompto said, throwing his hands up, "I know you had ten years to plan this and everything, but now you're just showing off. How could you possibly know that?"

"The sun never stopped rising, Prompto," Ignis informed him. "It's simply been hidden."

"Well then," Noct said. "We've got twenty minutes to find a better view."

The elevators, powered either by the crystal or by the usurper, were unresponsive now. So the four of them trudged up the stairs on shaky legs, all the way up to the roof of the Citadel with only a minimum of whining and wheezing.

Ignis kept his mind off his doubts by counting Noct's steps on the stairs. 

Gladio had to kick a door down to let them onto the roof. The four of them spilled out into the night air and the cool breeze, and looked out together onto the dark, empty city. 

Above them, a few fading stars. And to the east, the faintest hint of pink. So dim and distant it might be no more than wishful thinking. But slowly, it grew brighter. Pink, then orange, then amber.

Prompto was sniffling, wiping at his eyes, while Gladio only crossed his arms and waited. Noct was smiling, pale and tired and pleased. Ignis wondered if the light on his face after ten years in the crystal felt the same as it did for the rest of them after ten years in the dark. Finally Ignis had to force his eyes back to the horizon, so as not to miss the moment the sun finally showed itself.

When it did, the burning yellow flame spilling over the sea, Prompto gasped. Gladio cheered. Noct laughed, reaching over briefly to grasp Ignis's shoulder. 

When he'd let go, Ignis discreetly stepped away and found himself a quiet place to fall to his knees and sob with relief.

They'd done it. They'd brought the dawn. They'd saved Noct. They'd survived, all of them.

Ten long years of darkness and doubt, of lying awake remembering things that hadn't happened, of summoning his daggers in the middle of the night to remind himself that the prince was alive, somehow, somewhere. Ten years of planning and preparation and pretending he knew how this would end. That it would work. That it could be done.

At eleven minutes past sunrise, he pulled himself together. Sucked in air and stumbled to his feet. Wiped at his eyes, as well as he could, put his glasses on and calmly went back to the others. "Do be careful not to damage your vision," he reminded them. "It would be unpleasantly ironic if this were the last sunrise you ever saw."

Prompto sighed happily. "You always know just how to ruin the moment, Iggy."

"Good to know he hasn't lost his touch," Noct agreed. He turned to grin at Ignis, a sight warmer and more welcome than the sunrise. "So what now?"

The three of them turned to look at Ignis expectantly. He opened his mouth, reaching for advice, for the next step, for the plans and contingencies that had sustained him all this time, and found none. "That's... up to Your Majesty," he said.

Noct huffed out a breath. "You're starting with that already? I haven't even been crowned." He folded his arms. "I don't even know that I _can_ be, without —" He broke off, looking away.

Without the Oracle present, for the ceremony. "Perhaps that should be our next step, then," Ignis suggested, trying to envision a modified coronation that would satisfy tradition while celebrating a new dawn.

"How about a nap, instead?" Noct asked.

Gladio snorted. "The sun just came up for the first time in ten years and you want to _sleep?_ "

"Yeah," Noct said, sounding pleasantly exhausted. "Maybe you'd be tired, too, if you'd actually done anything back there."

"Oooh, _burn!_ " Prompto squealed, before promptly ducking out of Gladio's reach and hiding behind the prince. 

Gladio got a hold of Noct, instead, grabbing him in a loose headlock. Gladio's version of a hug. "You did good," he said.

"I did awesome," Noct bragged, slightly muffled under Gladio's armpit. 

Prompto scoffed. "I could totally do that if I wanted."

Noct laughed. "Destroy the darkness _and_ all the daemons _and_ make the sun come up _and_ reclaim the crown city?"

"Tch, yeah," Prompto insisted. "I just didn't want to steal your thunder. How much would it suck if you came out of that crystal after ten years and I was like, 'dude, it's cool, I took care of it'?"

"You wish," Noct laughed, extracting himself from Gladio's hold so that he could properly punch Prompto in the arm. "Anyway, I just did what Ignis told me to do."

An egregious understatement. Ignis adjusted his glasses and resisted the urge to argue. "A wise course. Would that you followed it more often."

"I would if you'd tell me to take a nap once in a while."

Ignis swallowed past the sudden tightness in his throat. "I _am_ rather tired," he confessed. "Perhaps we should consider finding a place to camp."

"Why not here?" Noct asked. "Can't beat the view."

There were many, many reasons why that was inadvisable, and naturally Noct ignored all of them. They set the tent up right there on the roof of the Citadel, and as soon as it was more-or-less anchored and relatively upright, finally crawled inside. All four of them, filthy and disheveled and giddy with exhaustion. 

"You guys wanna see my pics from today?" Prompto asked, when they'd settled onto their bedrolls. "The lighting's not awesome, except at the end, but I got some _great_ sunrise shots."

"Let's see 'em," Noct said, enthused.

Lulled by a combination of Gladio's appreciative grunts and Prompto's imaginative retelling of the day's events, Noct was asleep by the fourth photograph.

Ignis lay awake for some time, listening to the breeze outside and watching the prince sleep. An old, odd, unfamiliar feeling was slowly settling over him: peace and security. The unknown lay ahead of them, but instead of a dark, winding tunnel it was a wide, sunny plain, waiting to be explored.

He realized that had no idea what to do next, or where to go, and only fear of waking the prince kept him from laughing out loud. The questions answered themselves, of course. He would go where Noct led, and they would do whatever Noct wanted. Including nap.

Ignis closed his eyes, listening to the others' breathing, deep in well-earned sleep. Noctis was at his side, warm and alive and snoring softly.

He slept.


End file.
